I sit here, appreciating the glow of twinkly lights on our recently adorned Christmas tree while my husband serenades me with live Christmas piano music behind me (he's actually practicing for a gig tomorrow night but serenade fits the ambiance much better, lol).

Tonight I am reminded of how stressful Christmas decorating used to be for me. I was bogged down by a form of perfectionism that stole my joy and filled my kids with stress. Partly I was trying to keep everybody happy. But since that wasn't really my job, I was unhappy and you know the saying: When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!" Sigh.

Enter Sozo, a unique inner healing and deliverance ministry that assists in uncovering things hindering your personal connection with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. With a healed connection, you can walk in the destiny to which you have been called, not unlike AFT. I received my first Sozo ministry session in May of 2009. It so impacted my life, about a year later I decided to gather a few friends in my living room to watch the training videos, and before we knew it, we were starting a ministry at our church.

We practiced on each other all of the time, and freedom was happening in so many areas of our lives. That first Christmas after starting our training, I realized that I no longer was stressed out over decorating for Christmas. I didn't specifically work on that in a session, but the healing that occurred was somehow linked to my perfectionistic tendencies at Christmas.

I was delighted to see the difference I felt, how easy it was for me to let go of perfect and embrace my kids' excitement of the season.

After getting our tree set up this year and the lights and decorations on, I realized that while perfectionism with decorating doesn't drag me down anymore, I'm still stuck on trying to make everyone happy.

I'm actually excited about that revelation because freedom for me tonight is just an AFT/Sozo session away (I love to combine the two techniques for a powerhouse inner healing freedom session). My intention is "I am free from the need to make others happy."

Because I am already in an AFT habit, much of the process has already happened just with the awareness. That's what I love so much about this work…I move much more quickly through blocks because the momentum to move past blocks and watch them dissolve is really flowing.

Think of a blocked stream. At first, the water dams up and begins to form a pool. But once the block begins to get clear, the stream begins to flow and carry away the things that had built up. The flow of the water now keeps other block from solidifying, and old ones are worn away by the flow of the stream.

Well, that's how I see AFT operating in my life. This river of God is flowing less hindered through my life and when it encounters a block, now I'm aware of the signs and symptoms and I can just acknowledge it and let it go. It's so liberating!

A Christmas tradition we have is to plan a special event or snack or activity each day of December leading up to Christmas. We have an advent calendar where I put each day's surprise and my kids take turns opening the doors. This year, I am behind and haven't gotten all of the advent things set up (we actually have several advent calendar since w/ 6 kids, each one needed a turn to do SOMETHING. Now we only 3 home, it's not as important, although the youngest still enjoys it…so I'll get it set up Sunday. She will enjoy getting caught up then).

As I was becoming aware of how I'm trying to make everyone else happy and not finding much joy in that myself, I had the idea to put a treat each day in the advent calendar for me. I'll do the ones for the kids, and with those will include a note to myself for my bit of happy time. It's my creative idea that I would get in the 8th step of the AFT process.

I'm still going to take myself through that intention, but I'm going ahead and taking action on that idea and setting up some fun, nurturing, caring daily advent door surprises for me. I'm already smiling inside just thinking about it! The will include things like taking a walk down the trail, calling a friend for a spontaneous coffee date, inviting a friend for a hike, sitting in front of the Christmas tree while listening to my husband practice piano, paint, drink of cup of tea, bake some Christmas cookies, read a chapter in my book, do some yoga, watch an episode of my favorite show, play a game…

What other ideas for some short fun activities can you think of? I'd love some new ideas!

Tonight's affirmation is going to be a variation of several that I've done over the course of the 30-Day Miracle challenge:

I am a burning bush and I move joyfully and excitedly towards my goal of receiving $100,000 monthly beginning November 30, 2017 for my YL and AFT expertise, pressed down, shaken together and running over."

I know November 30 has passed, but there's just something about this affirmation that is still resonating with me, so I'm going to keep using it until I get a different impression.

So, comment with your fun ideas for me, and I'll keep you posted on how this Advent goes once I clear out the need to make everyone else happy!